Teen Intern Book Review: Lightlark by Alex Aster

As part of their SuccessLink internships at the Boston Public Library, Teen Central's teen interns Abri and Elizabeth wrote reviews of young adult literature, evaluating whether BookTok favorites lived up to the hype or not. See Abri's thoughts on Lightlark below, then check out the book for yourself and decide if you agree!

Lightlark by Alex Aster

Overall Book Rating: 1.5/5

Synopsis:

Welcome to the Centennial.

Every 100 years, the island of Lightlark appears to host the Centennial, a deadly game that only the rulers of six realms are invited to play. The invitation is a summons—a call to embrace victory and ruin, baubles and blood. The Centennial offers the six rulers one final chance to break the curses that have plagued their realms for centuries. Each ruler has something to hide. Each realm’s curse is uniquely wicked. To destroy the curses, one ruler must die.

Isla Crown is the young ruler of Wildling—a realm of temptresses cursed to kill anyone they fall in love with. They are feared and despised, and are counting on Isla to end their suffering by succeeding at the Centennial.

To survive, Isla must lie, cheat, and betray…even as love complicates everything.

Introduction:

Now, in my experience, there are three types of authors in the world: ones that write, ones that have a degree in marketing and write, and ones that get onto TikTok promising that their book will be the next Hunger Games when it is certainly not so. Alex Aster may have stayed atop the New York Times bestselling list for a good 8 weeks, but that is not at all an indicator of the quality of this book. In fact, someone has called this the Fyre Festival of the book world, and I have never heard a more accurate statement in my life.

What I Liked:

The only thing this book has going for it is the prose. It is beautiful, detailed, but doesn’t drag, and gives the reader an insight into the very rich and imaginative world that is Lightlark. A lot of the book's flaws are hidden in the fact that Aster knows how to string sentences together well, and had this book had more characterization, plot insight, and overall care put into it, I believe it could’ve done wonders within the fantasy genre.

Critiques:

The Plot: Alex Aster’s biggest claim to fame is the fact that no one has ever been able to guess all the plot twists in this book. There is certainly a reason for that, but it’s not ingenuity. Throughout the book, Aster places the most minute clues in scenes with no importance, breaks her own established rules, and erases chapters' worth of build-up with bogus solutions that only work due to “technicalities.” If I had to describe this book in one word, it would be ‘aggravating.’
The Characters (or lack thereof): Oftentimes, it feels as though Aster does not care about about half of the cast within the book, and it shows. The background cast are given little to no outstanding characterization other than what is naturally in their archetypes, and Aster often forgets they’re even in the story if they’re not relevant for that scene. This drastically affects Isla’s interpersonal relationships and makes them seem hollow or scripted. It also highlights the flaws with the main three as characters because there is simply no one else to focus on.
A Blander-Than-Sand Protagonist: Isla Crown is one of the most boring protagonists that I have ever had the displeasure to read about, and if she had died within the first chapter, I don’t think I would feel anything whatsoever. She has so many conflicting personality traits that it feels like Aster was trying to make her relatable to everyone by making her relatable to no one in particular. After 400 pages of reading, the only thing I can say about her definitively is that she likes chocolate. That is a problem.
The Narrative Dissonance: My biggest pet peeve with this book is that it does not read how it’s supposed to. It is written in third person limited, but it doesn’t feel like it because not even the narration has any insight into Isla’s personal character, thoughts, or emotions. If I had to describe it, this book felt like watching a black-and-white movie that has no sound, no closed captioning, and blurry HD. I could not connect to Isla as a person because she herself feels so removed from everything that is happening.
The POTENTIAL: The premise of this book was so good. Six different rulers, six different curses, and six different motivations would have made for a complex, detailed story that has the reader questioning which side they’re rooting for and would make the romance plot in this book so much more poignant. However, the Centennial itself is SO BORING that I wonder if that was even the plan to begin with. What happened to the trials, the fight to the death, the stakes? I am so frustrated that Aster did not do more with this because this story has so much raw potential. The best way I can encapsulate it is if the Hunger Games copped out in the middle of the book and decided the victor would be determined by a talent show.

Conclusion:

I would not waste any more time or money on this book unless you want to study good prose. Case closed.